- Main thing was stayed safe (which is a bit more than can be said for the poor lady on the road with blood all over the road and her face on the run into Strath)- +1 re: Max Stevens- Bonus having a jersey that actually fits- Gorge Rd was nice- Checkers was OK (despite people stepping off all over the place)... had to keep telling people to hold their line - Food stop at Oakbank was 100% improvement on last year (mind you started from a pretty low base)- Mt Barker was a disaster 2nd year in a row (thought they would have learnt from last year)- Run from Meadows to Ashbourne was awesome- Last few kms into Strath traffic wise was heaps better than the last couple of years (nice clear run without cars)- Chaos at the oval without any communication- Riding amongst the slower/unprepared riders is dangerous, if theres one rule every cyclist should abide by its "HOLD YOUR LINE" people changing direction randomly on the road causes you to take unnecessary risks (eg. overtaking and having to move over the white lines into the opposite lane)- In the end felt better as the day went on and happy to finish up with an average just over 26.5kph (mind you that dropped a bit making my way back to Maccy & Flaxley, much easier logistics wise for the wife to pick me up from there)

There was heaps of food at Strath when we went to eat at about 12pm. As you entered the oval you were handed a powerade, then a lunch bag with the paper in it and then you walked past the food.

I had to ride behind a police car going up checkers, which made me stop at 100 metres from the top. I waited on the side then rode the rest.

There was a group wearing MB cycles kit that were a bunch of rude pricks and yelling at people who had paid to ride to move left for them. I heard it several times and then decided to ride in the middle of them to piss them off and told one girl to shut up as she was a freeloader.

oh and +1 for the tools in the livestrong !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !!'s (lawyers) kit who couldn't ride a flag pole up the....... well you know the rest!! blocking the road 5 wide at 20kph!!!

I almost forgot my pet hate :-

WOMEN WHO INSIST ON THINKING RIDING A BIKE IS JUST LIKE THE STATIONARY BIKE IN THE GYM AND HAVE THE IPOD IN ON THE ROAD.... THIS IS MEGA DANGEROUS NORMALLY, BUT A HUGE GROUP RIDE Say What ARE YOU THINKING.... NEXT ONE I SEE WILL BE GETTING THE RENSHAW!!

sadly the GF a madly pro-women anything agree's that they are a bloody menace to the rest of us.....

- The food at Oakbank was plentiful but getting the water from fire hydrants is a bit gross - why can't they get in decent water as we pay enough!!- I found other riders on Checker's Hill ok but did have to tell a few to keep their line- My biggest gripe would be slow riders not keeping to the left when there is plenty of room and riding towards the centre of the road so when you pass them you have no choice but to cross the line which isn't safe.- Re: Mt Barker. I agree with above comments but it is still a work day for many so I don't see what other options they have regarding the traffic as the cars will have to cross paths with us cyclists somewhere. I thought there were heaps of police manning the one roundabout which was good.- I found the drivers to be much more patient this year, especially in Mt Barker and Hahndorf - last year I encountered a few total knobs!- Loved the decent down Bull Creek and the run into Strath.- Did see a couple of non jersey cyclists - one actually did alot of work in a little group I was in so from that point of view he only feeloaded $$ wise.

I dont think people know how dangerous it is to drink water out of hydrants. I design fire sprinkler systems and also take care of comissioning systems and some building insurance companies ask for signs on fire hydrants and hosereels noting that the water is not suitable for human consumption. Its not the water or where is comes from but the pipework it sits in, if the system has not been drained or tested at the correct intervals the sitting water turns black!!!!!!!. Gastro, skin iritations, eye problems. If you have the choice I dont recomend you mess with your health.

Sounds like the ride was fun. I know there are plenty of !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! on bikes out there, I seem to meet them every ride mostly show ponies or I'm too good for anyone who spent less than me!!!, but it was a comunity ride open to everyone. The reason I chose not to enter was the large numbers and the chance that the large numbers of new riders or riders not used to rides like this could make it difficult, oh and having to deal with the !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! factor!!!!. I really enjoyed Ride Like Crazy (there were still some bad riders but you get that) and I hope everyone in the TDU challenge enjoyed their ride. I might have a crack next year but will bring my own water Bill

TdF 2011: as Cadel Evans crosses the finish at Alpe-d’Huez: "I reckon tonight in hindsight he may have won the Tour de France tomorrow." The man Phil Ligget !!!

I was quite flat physically for the ride this time round so i did not ride too hard

- checkers hill was ok bit annoying that the walkers decided to span themselves across the entire left hand lane. I was faster riding than the walkers ... did not expect to be though.

- traffic was a bit annoying, not so much that I had to go slow (I did not mind that) but it compressed the field. I liked it after a few hills on gorge rd when the field spread.

- second the groups of riders taking the entire width of the road. I was constantly riding on the white line to wait for an opportunity to overtake.

- fire hydrant water was a bit not quite right but i assumed (maybe wrongly) that it was ok to drink.

- i dropped off to the back of the packs cause I decided not to "jostle" to stay in my position. Bad idea this just meant I dropped to the back of the pack, then when the back dropped off the main group ...

- I crashed, not sure the exact details, but from what i remember i was second rider on the left and there was someone else on the right (atleast 3 wide anyway) and i was pretty much in the middle of the bunch.

Someone tried to over take on my left. Not sure if I moved slightly right or what happened but I ended up veering left sharply and hitting my friends wheel and I went over luckily my friend did not.

My friend said I hit the "passers" back wheel, she might have been saying that to make me feel better about something that was my own fault/lack of riding skill. slightly buckled wheel fixed by opening the brakes a bit and a small cut on the hand so all was ok.

- friend said we averaged 25 ish km/h Ill know more when I check my own watch data. It does not seem quite right cause I felt like !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! and that seems very fast average speed for me.

liamb wrote:I dont think people know how dangerous it is to drink water out of hydrants. I design fire sprinkler systems and also take care of comissioning systems and some building insurance companies ask for signs on fire hydrants and hosereels noting that the water is not suitable for human consumption. Its not the water or where is comes from but the pipework it sits in, if the system has not been drained or tested at the correct intervals the sitting water turns black!!!!!!!. Gastro, skin iritations, eye problems. If you have the choice I dont recomend you mess with your health.

Surely flushing it for few minutes would be enough to remove the sitting water (which byt he time most get to the rest stations would have happened automatically). The water itself comes from the same pipeline that supplies our homes, its not a separate water source. The water on its own tasted quite metallic to me, nothing that a few scoops of powerade didn't fix. I felt fine the rest of the day and the next so far, and I drank a few litres of the stuff.

Unfortunately I was one of those people who had to work and had no choice but to drive amongst the cyclists on the Gumeracha to Lobethal road, so my apologies to anyone who felt I may have got in your way but I did notice a few people took advantage of my slip stream.

I enjoyed the ride (I only did the 90km from Gummeracha), found the organisation to be reasonable but the water tasted terrible. The last 10 km was pretty tough.

The only thing that put a downer on my whole experience was losing my Edge 500 (one in last year's Garmin-Transition Team colours). While I'm unhappy about dropping an expensive bit of kit out of my jersey pocket while wandering around the oval, I'm even more annoyed that I have no data on the ride, especially seeing as I wanted to compare my performance at MCCT with that of my Ride Like Crazy attempt.

That really sucks about your garmin. I'd be lost without mine. Given that my garmin 500 cost double what my roadie did I kept mine in my pocket too. Wasn't worried about leaving my bike because I'm pretty sure it would've been the cheapest bike on the oval so thieves had much better bikes to pick from.

I made a real concious effort to not get carried away early and literally just rolled over the pedals all the way to Kersbrook in order to conserver energy for Checkers. The climb was mega tough but the carnage wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting to come down when someone fell in front of me. But everyone who was walking up made a pretty good effort to get off the road and walk up the verge.

My one gripe was the water at Gumeracha, It was coming out of what must have been 2 brand new poly tanks and the water was disgusting and tasted like drinking plastic. So when I got to the Oakbank stop the water I had there (I didn't notice where it was coming from) tasted fantastic !!!!!!! Also I read someone whinge about the powerbar Gel's and bars. This is the first organised ride I've done where anything like that has been provided so I was extreemly happy to use them. The run through Mount Barker was a bit of a pain. But as someone else noted. It's an open road event and nornal people still have to be able to get around.

The police did a great job organising traffic. The run from Meadows down to Ashbourne was fantastic. I got a slight bit of cramp coming up the hill out of Ashbourne and thought I might be in real trouble but just took it easy down heap sof power ade and slowly streached my legs out as I rolled along and they cam good. So much so that as I came over the top of the hill for the decent into Strath I was able to really give it a fast finish. I got through in 5:28:53 avg 24.7 kph. So I was extreemly happy with that.

I found the organisation at the end of the ride much better than last year. So I loved the ride, my gripe (like a lot of others) is riders who don't seem to know the meaning of keep left. I had to pass on the wrong side of the road on too many occasions.

But I give the ride a 9/10 Fantastic.

Great Jens Voigt Quotes:"I get paid to hurt other people, how good is that?" "Shut up legs"

A big improvement on last year, which is shaping up as the low point of the event.

The flow of riders through the oval had been more thought out and the Challenge Tour and the TDU weren't competing for space. It could be improved, but it was more like what it should be. It would have been good if they'd also used the big screen to display the announcements and a map of the site. Having the annual show catering open was a good idea. The later bus was good, as you could see the TDU riders come in knowing that you'd still make the bus. The buses were on time as they didn't need to be diverted to collect the walking wounded.

The lack of cars near the end was good. I must have got lucky with the traffic at Mt Barker, as it didn't seem that bad. Certainly I got through faster than some of the poor people in cars on their way to work. Some people "setting a good time" seem to be agitated by it.

There does need to be some education for the more casual riders. There were a few places where I did the right thing and hung about behind people taking the entire lane who still didn't let me past and I had to cross into the oncoming lane. I don't like doing that, as every year it seems that someone doing exactly that is badly hurt by oncoming traffic.

It would be useful if the book flicked the page on peleton riding. It should tell the slower riders: - HOLD YOUR LINE. The person coming up from behind wants you to be predictable. - LOOK BEHIND when they want to change their line, because bikes in good mechanical condition are silent. - KEEP LEFT unless overtaking. A bike should be able to pass you without crossing the centre line. - Shout STOPPING, MOVE TO THE VERGE, then STOP. If you start to weave, don't persist. Come back another day when there aren't 8,000 people and give it another go. - Stop at all the watering points. I shouldn't be 5Km past a refreshment stop and encounter people on the first big hill complaining of no water.

It should tell the faster riders: - OVERTAKE ON THE RIGHT. Tell them you are there. - But DON'T SHOUT RUDELY at people. Because a lot of people are doing this for enjoyment, not for racing. - DON'T BE A PRAT. You are not a TDU rider, the road is not closed for this event.I also saw one group that wouldn't thin out to let an ambulance past, which I think summarises the overly-competitive nature of some riders.

The ride guide should really walk people through the course a bit more, pointing out steep ascents and descents, exposed areas, toilets and shops, etc.

I very much enjoyed the ride. Was organised better than last year and realistically the event organisers did a good job.

The worst part about the ride are the riders. Its only natural that when you have that many people in such close formation that you will get people making mistakes and its to be expected. But there were some silly people diving up the inside when leaving rest stops, passing within literally cm's of my bars and just generally being prats.

That said they were the exception and overall teh event and inclusion in a pro tour race is brilliant. Ill do it again next year.

mmhbeer wrote:There was heaps of food at Strath when we went to eat at about 12pm. As you entered the oval you were handed a powerade, then a lunch bag with the paper in it and then you walked past the food.

I had to ride behind a police car going up checkers, which made me stop at 100 metres from the top. I waited on the side then rode the rest.

There was a group wearing MB cycles kit that were a bunch of rude pricks and yelling at people who had paid to ride to move left for them. I heard it several times and then decided to ride in the middle of them to piss them off and told one girl to shut up as she was a freeloader.Have to agree that Mt Barker was an absolute shamozzle.

I had a great time and would do this ride again.

Did it make you feel all tough to abuse someone who has also paid to ride.. They travelled down from brisbane..Not freeloaders as you assumed...And people should be keeping left anyway...Pity I wasn't on the ride to critique your verbal abuse skills up close

I did the 62ks on my folder. I thought it was great, except for some weird comments from old roadies... like one who told me to 'keep left' while he was happy to take the space I had claimed in the right hand lane by sitting in the middle with a car in front and behind...

mmhbeer wrote:There was heaps of food at Strath when we went to eat at about 12pm. As you entered the oval you were handed a powerade, then a lunch bag with the paper in it and then you walked past the food.

I had to ride behind a police car going up checkers, which made me stop at 100 metres from the top. I waited on the side then rode the rest.

There was a group wearing MB cycles kit that were a bunch of rude pricks and yelling at people who had paid to ride to move left for them. I heard it several times and then decided to ride in the middle of them to piss them off and told one girl to shut up as she was a freeloader.

Have to agree that Mt Barker was an absolute shamozzle.

I had a great time and would do this ride again.

My pet hate on mass participation events is people like you who thinks its their right to ignore common sense, common courtesy and the ride rules/guidelines, and ride where you feel like (ie not left), and deliberatly go out of your way to annoy people.

You are no better than the group you are complaining about - actually you are far worse imo.

Having the first plough through Epsom Road Studios pics from Checker Hill (with the faint hope of finding a needle in a haystack) I have to say by the photos alone there appears to be as many people walking up as there are people still on their bikes, I didn't think it was that bad when I went up but that being the case for the whole morning hats off to everyone who managed to get up whilst staying on their trusty steeds.

It was definitely worth going out and doing a reccy beforehand instead of coming up to that on Friday morning and thinking OMGosh!

well I came down from queensland for this (amongst other things). My impressions:

- course was good, really enjoyed the ride through gorge rd. I enjoyed the long gradual descent at the end too, smashed it through there, was fun. - overall rider quality was ok, my impression may be somewhat influenced by the fact the group I was with started a little bit ahead of the official start time & a couple of k away from it so we didn't get too caught up in the masses- we skipped checker's hill - heard it was likely to be a shitfest, and most of the guys in the group had done it previously anyway.- not closing the roads (or at least an entire lane for the riders) is really stupid. It just creates a dangerous mess. - the "you must wear the jersey" rule is stupid - good luck finding your group again if you get separated (the group I was with for the most part didn't wear them). - dunno about the rest stops, my uncle (who I was riding with) said they were terrible last year so we didn't even bother. - very few course guides/directors - ended up taking a wrong turn at one point

I'd say it's a good ride in spite of the organisation, not because of it.

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